Dr. Terrie Galanti, a faculty member at the University of North Florida (UNF), has focused her career on expanding access and opportunity in STEM education. Dr. Galanti graduated first in her class from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1986, becoming the first woman to achieve this distinction. She went on to earn a master’s degree in computer engineering from Stanford University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and served as a project officer working with satellite and intelligence systems.
After stepping away from her professional career in 1992 to focus on parenting, Dr. Galanti returned to education through roles as a substitute teacher and later as a certified high school mathematics teacher. She spent nearly two decades teaching before earning her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education Leadership from George Mason University and joining UNF’s faculty in 2020.
“My high school counselor told me I could be ‘so much more’ than a math teacher,” Dr. Galanti recalls. “But I’ve always believed that there’s no higher calling than shaping the minds of students and expanding who sees themselves as capable in STEM.”
Her recent research includes leading efforts on Project InTERSECT, an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education involving Duval County Public Schools, where she studied how elementary teachers develop STEM identities and instructional confidence.
She has also worked on projects related to algebra acceleration and persistence in STEM fields, examining how cultural perceptions about mathematical ability affect student progress. Her involvement with NEFSTEM and the PhysTEC coalition centers on physics teacher development, digital badging, and computational thinking.
Currently, Dr. Galanti is piloting ways to use artificial intelligence as a collaborative tool in K-12 math classrooms to support deeper conceptual understanding among students.
“I look forward to a future when more students see themselves in STEM,” Dr. Galanti says. “Until then, I’ll keep working to increase opportunities for students to thrive in these fields.”
